


Neighbors

by Cezet



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 05:55:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7606309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cezet/pseuds/Cezet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A newly-signed-to-WWE Seth Rollins is intrigued by his neighbor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Tyler was moving into his half of the duplex he’d rented after signing a developmental contract with WWE.  Seth.  Seth, he reminded himself again and again.  Seth Rollins.  He liked the name.  He didn’t really have much to move in.  A carload of stuff he’d brought from Iowa.  He’d had a bed delivered, but he’d still have to find a couch and any other furniture he wanted.  That could wait for another day, he thought, bringing in the last box.

His very chatty and elderly new landlady, Mrs. Fields, had shown him around the place and told him all about how her late husband had fixed it all up himself.  There was a pool in the backyard to be shared with the neighbor and, the amenity that had sold him on this place over any other, the hot tub.  It was on a covered patio just around the side of the house, fully screened by the large privacy fence.  He imagined how wonderful it would be to have a hot tub to relax his banged-up body in after a match.  His landlady also told him he had to be quiet since his neighbor was a doctoral student at the university.  Seth considered himself a pretty quiet-living guy and hoped the new neighbor would agree. 

On the other side of the wall, Bronwyn Whitley checked the cookies in the oven.  Ready.  Mrs. Fields had mentioned that her new neighbor was moving in today and she wanted to get off on the right foot.  While they were cooling, she changed out of her lounging-around-the-house clothes and into jeans and a turquoise t-shirt.  Once the cookies cooled enough, she put some on a plate and walked onto the shared porch.  The two doors were right next to each other. 

She knocked and waited.  Soon, the door opened and she began to introduce herself and proffer the cookies.

“Hi, I’m Bronwyn.  I’m your new neighb – You’re Tyler Black!” she said in surprise.

Seth smiled at her.

“Seth Rollins now, but yes,” he replied.  This gorgeous woman was his neighbor?  When Mrs. Fields had said a doctoral student, this was not at all who he’d imagined.  She was above average in height and slim with long dark brown hair and a stunning heart-shaped face.  She looked like she belonged in a magazine, not a library.

“Sorry, just a surprise,” she said, blushing, “I brought welcome cookies.”

“Wow, thanks,” he said, taking the plate and helping himself to a cookie.  “Mmmm, good cookie,” he mumbled around a bite.

“I’m glad you like them,” she said, “I’ll let you get back to unpacking now.”

“Wait,” he said quickly, “You obviously know who I am, but I don’t know anything about you except that you’re a student.”

“Oh, ah, that’s really all there is to know, I guess.  I’m working on my Ph.D. in social psychology.”

Seth leaned against the door frame.  “So, what does that entail?”

Bronwyn snorted, “A lot of studying and writing, to be honest.  I’m working on my dissertation proposal like crazy.  And teaching, of course.”

“That sounds like a lot,” Seth said, more to keep the conversation going than because he really knew much about the topic.

“It is, but that’s the way of it when you want to be the best, right?  I mean, you must practically live at the gym to do what you do,” Bronwyn said, trying to turn the conversation away from herself.

“Oh, yeah, a lot of time training, for sure,” he agreed, “Plus working on promo skills and character development.”

“You know, it is probably similar in that there’s one thing that everybody thinks about, but there’s actually a million-and-one other things that are big parts of what you’re doing,” she said thoughtfully.

He nodded, “Yeah, I can see that.”

She smiled.  “Back to it for me,” she said, brightly, as he finished the cookie.  “Let me know if you need anything I can help with, where things are in town and whatnot.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it and the cookies,” he replied.

Bronwyn walked back in her apartment, closed the door and leaned back against in.  “Wow,” she thought. 

Seth closed his door and, without knowing it, mirrored her.  “Wow,” he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Seth walked out his front door to head to the gym for an evening workout.  He noticed Bronwyn standing at the rear of her car with the hatchback up.  She appeared to be struggling with something.  He walked over.

“You ok?” he asked.

“Hey.  Yes, I’m fine.  I just bought myself a desk so I can stop working at my kitchen table.  They were nice enough to load it for me at the store, but now I have to get it inside,” Bronwyn replied, frowning at the large box.

Seth dropped his gym bag.  “I’ll get it for you.”

“You don’t have to!  If you just get it on the ground, I can get it inside.  I’m just afraid I’ll drop it getting it out of the car.”

Seth put his arms up in a front double bicep pose.  “We’ll consider it a pre-workout,” he said with mock swagger.  Bronwyn swallowed hard as her eyes traveled over his muscular arms.

“Umm, ok, if it isn’t a bother,” she stammered.

She stepped away as he walked over and picked up the box like it weighed nothing.  She shut the car and grabbed his gym bag as she walked to the door.  She opened the door and led him inside.

“Where do you want me to put it?” he asked, looking around her living room. 

“Just anywhere.  I have to put it together anyhow.”

Seth set the box down in front of the coffee table.  He looked at the picture on the box.

“Looks like a nice desk,” he said.

“Yeah, hopefully it won’t be difficult to assemble.  The salesman assured me it wasn’t, but I suck at things like this.”

“Do you want a hand?  I’ve put together a ton of things like this.”

“Oh, no!  I didn’t say that to try to get you to do it for me!”

“I didn’t think you did.  I just wanted to offer.  Honestly, putting these together is fun.  Kind of like Lego for adults.”

“But you were just leaving,” she said, gesturing to his bag which she had set down near the door.

Seth shrugged.  “Just a workout and I can do that later.”

“Well, if it really isn’t a bother.  I feel like such a stereotype right now.  Girl who can’t put together furniture.”

Seth laughed, “Hey, I fully expect help.”

“Deal,” she said, “As long as you let me make you dinner as a thank you.”

“Deal,” he agreed.

 

They began by opening the box and taking out all the pieces.  Seth was sitting in the floor laying out all the pieces and comparing them to the directions.  He hadn’t been lying when he said this was something he enjoyed, despite knowing how weird that was.  Bronwyn had brought out her small toolkit and sat down next to him.  They chatted as they worked and the conversation was easy.  Both found themselves laughing more than usual.  Soon, he had the desk half-way built.  Bronwyn was handing him the tools and parts as needed.  Several times, their hands brushed and each felt a heart rate spike, but said nothing.  When Seth lined up the last few screws, Bronwyn asked, “Spaghetti ok?”

“Huh?” came the response.

“For dinner.  Spaghetti and meatballs?”

“That would be great,” he said.

Bronwyn walked into the kitchen and washed her hands.  She turned the oven on to pre-heat and put water on to boil for the pasta.   Then, she pulled her homemade sauce out of the fridge and put it in a saucepan to warm.  Happily, she’d just made a batch of sauce and meatballs the night before and could thus serve up something tasty with relative speed.

“Do you want a salad to go with it?” she called as she popped the meatballs she’d made to go with the sauce into the oven.

She turned to see Seth leaning against the kitchen doorway watching her.

“No, thanks, just spaghetti,” he replied, “The desk is all done.”

Bronwyn walked past him into the living room to look at it. 

“Perfect!” she exclaimed, “Thanks so much, Seth.”

She reached out and embraced him in a quick hug, releasing him before he could really react.

“You’re welcome,” he said, enjoying the lingering tingle from her body pressed against him.

“Have a seat,” Bronwyn said, gesturing at the couch as she disappeared back into the kitchen, “Turn on the television if you want to.  I’ll get the table cleared off onto the desk.”

While Bronwyn dropped the pasta into the boiling water and arranged her new desk, Seth sat and looked around.  The apartment was obviously a mirror of his, though differently furnished.  Two half-height bookshelves took up the space under her front window next to the couch.  Seth looked at all the books and took in the academic titles.   _Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology.  The Globalization of Nothing. Enchanting a Disenchanted World.  Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. The History of Sexuality, Volumes 1, 2 & 3.  Discipline and Punish.  _They seemed like heavy stuff to Seth.

Atop the shelves were a variety of framed pictures.  Bronwyn smiling at the camera.  Bronwyn with friends.  Bronwyn as a child with family.  On the end, was a framed magazine cover with Bronwyn on it.  He was looking at it as she walked back into the room.

“That’s you,” he said unnecessarily.

Bronwyn blushed.  “Yeah, my mom had my first cover framed.”

“You’re a model?” he asked.

“Was.  I’m 25 now and models age in dog years,” she joked.

“What was that like?” he asked curiously.

“Honestly?  Boring.  At first it was flattering, but the longer I did it, the more annoying it got.  I was never very serious about it because I knew I wanted to go to college and do so many other things.  Still, it paid the bills while I was an undergrad.”

“That’s very…pragmatic,” he said.  She smiled.

“Enough about that.  Tell me how you got into wrestling,” she said.

Now it was Seth’s turn to smile.  His whole face changed and took on an earnest light.

“I always wanted to wrestle.  My friends and I used to put on shows on a trampoline in the yard.  Once I graduated from high school, I started training and that was it.  I’ve worked hard to get where I am, but I know I have also been really lucky.”

“Give yourself more credit.  You’re an amazing wrestler.  Some of the things you do are so beautiful.”

He laughed.  “I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say it was beautiful.”

“But it is!  All controlled motion and expressiveness.”

Seth blushed and diverted the conversation quickly.  “How’d you get to be a fan, anyhow?  I mean, you’re a model-slash-PhD.  Not exactly the target demographic.”

“I grew up with it.  I have two older brothers who love it and I wanted to do everything they did when I was a kid.  Besides, it was the Attitude Era and so many cool things were going on.”

“Did you ever think of becoming a wrestler?” he asked curiously.

“Me?  Goodness no.  I’m not athletic.  Besides, it was the Attitude Era, remember?  I would’ve wanted to be a wrestler, not be in an evening gown match,” Bronwyn said with an eye roll.

Before Seth could reply, a buzzer rang out from the kitchen.

“Ugh!  That’s the meatballs!  The pasta’s going to be mush!” Bronwyn said, rushing into the kitchen.

She strained the pasta and declared it salvageable.  Seth leaned against the doorway again watching as she assembled the meal.

“Make yourself useful and open that bottle of red I left on the table,” she said over her shoulder.

He picked up the corkscrew next to the bottle and opened it, pouring wine into the two glasses that had been sitting next to the bottle.

She served the pasta in wide, low-rimmed bowls and grated fresh parmigiano reggiano on top.

“Fancy,” he said as she put the food in front of him.

“Life’s too short for bad food,” she quipped, digging in.

Seth rolled a mouthful of spaghetti around his fork and put it in his mouth.  “Oh, my god,” he moaned.

“Yup,” she agreed.  The sound of his moan did things to her.  Stop it, she told herself.

“This is so good!” he wondered aloud.

“You sound surprised,” she said jokingly, “And you haven’t even tried a meatball yet.”

Seth speared a meatball.  He closed his eyes to better savor it as he chewed.

“This is the best spaghetti and meatballs of my life,” he declared.

“I’m glad you like it.”

He finished the bowl and she got him a second helping.

“Food pusher,” he said, rolling more spaghetti onto his fork.

Once he was done, he leaned back.  “I am stuffed.  It was so good.  I’ll never make it to the gym tonight.  I’ll be in a food coma,” he whined.

Bronwyn laughed at him again and finished her glass of wine.  She began picking up the dishes to put in the sink.

“Hey, no, you cooked.  Let me help,” Seth said, standing up and reaching for the plates.

“You built my desk.  We’re even.”

“Please let me help.”

“Fine, you put the dishes in the sink while I put away the leftovers.”

“You made enough food to feed an army,” he joked.

“I learned to cook when I was cooking for my whole family, including those two brothers I mentioned.  They were always ravenous as teenagers,” she said.

“I was the same way,” Seth said with a smile.

“Another glass?” she asked as she refilled her glass.

“Sure,” he answered.

They took their wine into the living room and sat on the couch.  They talked about wrestling and their favorite wrestlers when they were kids.  He was impressed by the breadth of her knowledge on the topic.  She listened with rapt attention as he told her of backstage goings-on and shared anecdotes from the indies.  What felt like only a short time later, she began to yawn.

They both looked at the clock and saw that it was already 11pm.

“Oh, Seth, I’m so sorry!  I didn’t mean to keep you here this long.  I’ve derailed your whole evening,” she apologized.

“Hey, no, don’t apologize.  This was great.  I really needed a night off and just to hang out with a friend.  This was great.”

Seth stood up and Bronwyn followed him to the door where he picked up his abandoned gym bag.

As they stood at the door, Seth wondered what to do.  He wanted to kiss her, but he was afraid.  She was his neighbor, he really liked her, he didn’t want to mess up.  All of these jumbled emotions were making him feel anxious and awkward.

Bronwyn opened the door and then hugged him for the second time that night.  This hug lasted  longer and she enjoyed the feeling of his body touching hers.

“Let’s do this again soon,” she said without letting go.

“Yes,” he breathed quietly against her.


	3. Chapter 3

Bronwyn was luxuriating in the hot tub with a bottle of celebratory champagne near her.  The defense of her dissertation proposal was done and she was approved to move forward.  If that wasn’t something to celebrate, she didn’t know what was. 

She looked up when she heard two voices that seemed to be moving around to the side of the house where the hot tub was.

She saw Seth and another man stop short.  She knew him from television, too, another wrestler.  Leakee, though now Roman Reigns.  Good grief but he was massive in person.

“Oh, hey Bronwyn, didn’t realize you were using the hot tub,” said Seth.  He and Roman were both in swim trunks and carrying towels.  He took in the sight of Bronwyn, wet hair slicked back, lounging in the hot, bubbling water.

“There’s plenty of room if you don’t mind sharing,” she said.

Before Seth could answer, Roman said, “Thanks,” and moved forward towards the hot tub.

Seth joined him and the two men got in, hissing at the feeling of the hot water on their skin.

“Hi, I’m Roman,” Roman said to Bronwyn.

“Hi, Roman.  I’m Bronwyn, Seth’s neighbor,” she replied.

“Yeah, he’s mentioned you,” Roman said.  Seth kicked him under the water and gave him a look.

“Ah so how’d the defense go today?” Seth asked to quickly change the subject.  The few times he’d seen Bronwyn recently, she’d been highly strung and worried about today.

Bronwyn smiled.  “Passed!”

“That’s great!” said Seth.

“Congrats,” said Roman.

“I’ll run in and get a couple more glasses so we can toast,” Bronwyn said, pulling herself out of the hot tub.

They both watched her as she got out, wet cranberry-colored swimsuit clinging to her beautiful form.  As soon as she was out of sight, Roman looked at Seth.

“Holy shit, man, you weren’t kidding.  She’s gorgeous.”

“Yeah, she is.”

“So are you gonna ask her out?  Because if you aren’t…” Roman trailed off.

Seth didn’t like that at all.  “I’m working up to it.  I don’t want things to be weird if she says no.”

Roman nodded and they quieted as Bronwyn approached holding two more glasses.  She handed one to each of them, got back in the hot tub and then filled all three. 

“To your successful defense,” said Seth and they drank.

After the toast, Roman looked at Bronwyn.  “So, what’s your research topic, baby girl?”

“Subcultural transmission of paraphilias,” she replied.  Both men looked at her questioningly.

“Sexual fetishes.  I study how membership in a subculture affects the likelihood and types of sexual fetishes a person will have.”

Both men then goggled at her.

“So, you mean you study…” Seth began, but trailed off.

“Sex, yes.  Right now, most of the research is highly individualistic.  I’m trying to push the boundaries a bit by focusing on group membership.  We know that sex, attraction, what people’s preferences are have individual and biological components, but we also know that socialization and culture affect these preferences, too.  I’m proposing that we view fetishes through a subcultural lens.”

“Oh, that’s…cool,” Seth stammered.

“I hope I haven’t made you uncomfortable,” she said, looking at them both, “I forget that some people find it embarrassing.”

“No,” they both replied, stumbling over each other’s words.

“It just caught me off guard, is all.  I didn’t know that people researched that,” Seth explained.  Roman nodded his agreement.

“Enough about my research!  What did you two do today?” Bronwyn asked.

They told her about their day at training and began sharing anecdotes.  As a fan, Bronwyn was thrilled to get this behind-the-scenes info and encouraged them to tell funny stories about their experiences in wrestling.  Roman went out of his way to talk Seth up and bring up stories that showed him in a good light.  Seth found it embarrassing that his friend was being so obvious, but he was also happy that he would do that for him.  More quickly than any of them realized, it was growing dark.

“Oh, wow, I didn’t mean to stay out here this long!” Bronwyn said.

“I hope we didn’t keep you from anything important,” Roman replied.

“Not at all.  This was wonderful and I really needed some fun.  Thanks for celebrating with me, both of you.  And it was nice to meet you, Roman.”


	4. Chapter 4

Bronwyn was up late finalizing a chapter draft that had to be sent to her major professor the next day.  It was nearly three am, but this had to be perfect, she thought to herself, leaning back and pinching the bridge of her nose. 

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on her door.

It was a testament to her level of distraction that Bronwyn walked over and opened the door without thinking to check who it was knocking so late.

Standing at her door was a very drunk Dean Ambrose.  Bronwyn looked down at her Explicit Mox Violence shirt and realized she was wearing nothing but the oversized shirt and a pair of panties.

He stepped in, leaning against the door jamb and mumbling, “Seth? Seth said cab could drop me here, crash on the couch.”  Then, he looked at her, his gaze traveling down from her face to her shirt.  He smiled.

“Hi, beautiful,” he murmured, reaching out to cup her face.  Then, there was something about gift wrap that she couldn’t quite make out.  Bronwyn knew she needed to do something, but she was so shocked that she just stood there without speaking. 

Dean leaned in and kissed her.  Bronwyn thought for a moment she might pass out.  He tasted like whiskey and did a thing with his tongue that made her toes curl.  She clung to him to stay upright, though the doorway appeared to be all that was keeping him upright himself, and his arm encircled her, pulling her body flush against his.  When the kiss ended, he looked past her and saw the couch right inside the door.

Reaching the level of seriousness that only very drunk people can, he said, “Christmas in the morning.”  He released her, stumbled to the couch and passed out.

Bronwyn was horrified.  She did not know what to do.  Seth.  He had mentioned Seth.  She stepped outside and banged on Seth’s door loudly.

“I’m coming, geez, Dean, hang on,” said Seth’s voice, sleepily.

Seth answered the door in just a pair of pajama pants, rubbing his eye.  Wait, that wasn’t Dean.

“Bronwyn?” he asked in confusion.

“Seth, Dean Ambrose is passed out on my couch!  Why is Dean Ambrose passed out on my couch?” she said hysterically.

“What?” he asked, still trying to make sense of the situation.

“There was a knock and I opened the door and it was Dean Ambrose and he kissed me and passed out on my couch!” she answered in one rushed breath.  She grabbed Seth’s arm and pulled, guiding him over to her door where she could point at her couch and the sleeping man on it.

Seth groaned.

“Bronwyn, I’m so sorry.  He called from a bar and I said if he’d take a cab, he could come here to sleep it off.  He must have gone to the wrong door.”

“Get him out, get him out!  I have a chapter draft due in the morning!” Bronwyn cried, feeling as agitated as she sounded.

Seth attempted to wake Dean, but he was dead to the world.  Moving over 200lbs of dead weight was also not going to work.

“Ok, let’s calm down and think this through,” Seth said slowly.

Bronwyn gulped and nodded, willing her heartrate to decrease. 

“He’s too out to wake and too heavy to move.  Can he stay here until morning?”

Bronwyn’s heartrate skyrocketed again, “What? No!  Absolutely not!”

Seth knew he needed to get her calmed down and decided to try humor.  He gestured at her shirt, “Come on, you’re obviously a fan.”

“Of watching him wrestle online!  Not of having him on my couch!  I’ve never even been to a live event!” she babbled.

Bronwyn crossed her arms over her chest.  This had the side effect of causing the shirt to ride up slightly.  That drew Seth’s attention to her long, beautifully-shaped legs.  He realized he was staring and looked at the ceiling quickly.

He shook Dean again to no response.  He hated how upset Bronwyn looked.  He walked over and put his arms around her, pulling her to his chest.

“There, there,” he said in an attempt to comfort her.

She sagged against him.  “I’m sorry, Seth, I’m so tightly wound over this draft and this is so just beyond the pale,” she began.

“Hey, no, no, this is definitely something you have a right to be upset over.  I’m really sorry.”

Bronwyn leaned against Seth’s bare chest for a few moments longer, then straightened.

“You’re right.  If we can’t wake him and can’t move him, he’ll just have to stay there.”

“Ok.”

“But I can’t have this, Seth.  I can’t have strange men coming to my house at 3am and kissing me and passing out on my couch when I have a chapter due.  Promise me this will not happen again.”

“I promise.  Never again,” Seth said.  He decided to think about the fact that Dean had kissed his Bronwyn later.  His Bronwyn.  He really was sleep-deprived, he thought.

“I’ll take my laptop into the bedroom and finish.  How long do you think he’ll sleep?”

“Probably quite a while.  He sounded pretty wasted.”

“Alright, I’ll never be able to sleep much with him there, so I’ll send him over as soon as he wakes up.”

“Do, umm, do you want me to stay?  I could sleep in the floor,” Seth offered.

“No, there’s no sense in that.  Ok.  Ok.  I can do this,” Bronwyn said as much to herself as to him.  She let Seth out and grabbed her laptop.  She’d deal with everything else in the morning.  All that mattered right now was her chapter draft.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
